#2677 "Colours of Purple"

#2677 "Colours of Purple"
7x5 inches oil

This is intended to be a partner to #2673 "Singleton Summer Blues Iris". A flower painting should always have at least one close friend if not more.

My oil composition sketch

Colour has inherent associated temperatures which goes back to the time when we were just emerging from the caves. The simplest dividing line is drawn between blues and greens which are cold and reds and yellows which are hot. There a many other variations in colour temperatures within these broad groups. Here is where painting can get more complicated for those who believe that colour rather than value (dark versus light) is most important. For myself, I think that colour and value are both vital but first, you need to start with composition and shapes. One without the others can fall flat. Art without fun and telling a story is not worth doing. That's my story and I am going to stick to it. 

Some flower colours defy mixing. For an intense shade of purple you need a cool red (like alizarin crimson) and a warm blue (like ultramarine blue) and some time to experiment. Even warm reds can be relatively cool and even cold blues can be warm. Einstein make a career and a science out of proving that everything is relative. Typical cool purple is mixed by mixing equal parts of alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue. Deviations with the amount of either colour will yield interesting variations in the hues. 

But often the result is lacking even when I use a clean palette knife to do the mixing. I also use clean palettes when mixing these fragile and subtle colours. Flowers need to be fresh and clean to be really alive and sometimes I am not satisfied with the colours achieved. That is when I dig deep into my "unusual colour box" and experiment. That is what I did in this case. I was not interested in achieving an iris that would pass the close examination by a professional horticulturist. But I did focus on the colours and had to get them right. 

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